Recent Posts

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:58:27 am »

Neighbor's apiary yesterday...about three weeks ago I was there and they had a good, strong colony going but last weekend when they looked, they were queenless so Matt's uncle got a queen cell from our club to install and I went down to help with the process and learn some more. That hive was where they placed the honey supers from the hives that died last fall so there were a lot of honey frames to be handled and we removed them, they're currently in a freezer at my house. We found a lot of bees yet and apparently, a laying worker. They don't use queen excluders but I can tell you that I will. Not that they would help with a laying worker situation. There is one sealed queen cell on the bottom for some reason that we all wonder what it's about. He installed the purchased queen and we noted where she was placed so we can go right to it next week. I suspect that something happened to the queen during that hive inspection three weeks ago. With as much time has passed since the last brood was seen and the life span of the worker bee, it will be interesting to see how this all pans out. Matt is prepared for it to be too late to save it. We shall see.

My nuc has been here for it's first full week today and I'm keeping a close eye on them. I have two jars of syrup on them and they seem to be taking about 1 pt/day. I don't know if that's good or bad but it seems to be consistent. Inside the hole in the inner cover is just teeming with bees and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the hive looks like on Wednesday when I open it. I placed a small piece of pollen patty in there but they aren't bothering with it so I guess I'll pull it out and chuck it. There is some correlation between pollen patties and SHBs, what  is it?

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DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING / Re: Varroa detected in Australia

« Last post by max2 on April 21, 2024, 02:19:56 am »

I do get notifications for workshops on varroa  issue but they are generally offered in location quite far for me to travel to.

With cooler times ahead there will few if any swarms and the chnace for mites to be spread is also reduced.

It will be interesting to see what the DPI is suggesting /requiring for beekeeprs sending bees south.
Will they be allowed to bring them back?

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DOWN UNDER BEEKEEPING / Re: News from Down Under

« Last post by max2 on April 21, 2024, 02:16:33 am »

Another few rainy days.
Well, it is Sunday, a day of rest
We had a great market yesterday and a chace to catch up with a number of beekeepers.
A number report that they have supers full of honey and we don't know what is flowering?
 Our valley is blessed with a lot of forest and tall trees. At times it is very difficult to see what is actually flowering.

34

HUMOR IS A FUNNY THING / Old Man Jokes

« Last post by Salvo on April 21, 2024, 12:02:03 am »

An old guy is sitting at a bar. A young woman walks in and sits down a couple seats over. The old man gets up, shuffles over to her, leans over and asks *So, do I come here often?*



An old man went to the doctor. The doctor says: *I'm afraid I have bad news. You have cancer... And you have Alzheimer's.*
The old man says *Well, at least I don't have cancer!*



The doctor says to the old man "I'll need to check your blood, urine, and stool. The old guy, who is virtually deaf, turns to his wife and shouts "WHAT'D HE SAY?". His wife says: *The doctor said he wants to see your underwear*.

Sal

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 20, 2024, 10:21:19 pm »

and allow them to make a queen if they need to.

You should know very soon if they have a queen. I am interested, let us know if they proceed in making queen cells.

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond

« Last post by Occam on April 20, 2024, 09:12:25 pm »

There really wasn't anything else to take pictures of. A couple of shb hiding in there as well, but nothing significant. Otherwise just the dead bees and webs/trash

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by The15thMember on April 20, 2024, 08:18:12 pm »

I checked the swarm that I managed to recover from my "Swarm Out of Reach" saga.  There was only about 3 frames of bees in there, so I compressed them down to 1 box.  I didn't see a queen, but the bees were acting so normal that I'm wondering if I just missed a virgin.  Or the babies made them stick, in spite of not having a queen.  I gave them a frame of BIAS from another hive to give them a population boost and allow them to make a queen if they need to.  As far as established hives, I split one, removed the queen from another, and added my pollen trap to a third.  There are a lot of queen cups being made, but I didn't see any actual queen cells.  I undersupered 2 of the hives to give some more room in the brood nest.  Still no significant drawing, and I can see from my notes that at this point last year drawing had absolutely commenced.   

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond

« Last post by Ben Framed on April 20, 2024, 04:18:56 pm »

Thanks Jim, Beesnweeds laid out a very good theory of what might have happened to Occams' bees and I tend to agree, without more information...

Occam did you happen to take more pictures of what you found?

Phillip

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: Swarm Trap deadout/abscond

« Last post by BeeMaster2 on April 20, 2024, 03:17:08 pm »

Ben,
No I didn?t find any. There was a lot of trash especially lots of dry old pollen that was in the combs.
Jim Altmiller

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GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. / Re: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

« Last post by cao on April 20, 2024, 12:12:12 pm »

I came out of winter with about 45.  Lost about 10-12 over winter which is about normal for me.  I always seem to go into winter with several that I know won't make it.  If all the splits make it, I will be somewhere close to 100.  And it is still early.  I don't really want that many but when you have the chance and have capped queen cells on frames, it is hard not to split them.